Blockbuster

The once iconic video rental giant Blockbuster is shutting down its remaining stores across the country. Netflix, meanwhile, is emerging as the leader in video rental, now primarily through online streaming. But Blockbuster, Netflix and home media consumption (VCR/DVD/Blu-ray) may never have existed at all in their current form if the content industry had been successful in banning or… Read More

DISH announced this morning that it will be closing down the remaining Blockbuster brick-and-mortar retail locations that it owns, and ending the company’s DVD-by-mail rental service. The decision was made about two-and-a-half years after the satellite TV organization bought the flailing DVD rental business for $228 million in cash. Dish said that while it’s shuttering stores, it… Read More

Blockbuster has definitely seen better days, but now it’s starting to seem downright desperate. According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Blockbuster is reportedly gearing up to sell mobile phones alongside the Milk Duds at its brick-and-mortar stores. Read More

Dish Network has the answer to Netflix: Blockbuster. The company bought the bankrupt Blockbuster six months ago at auction for $228 million and apparently wasted no time integrating Blockbuster’s current streaming service into Dish’s satellite TV plans. The Blockbuster Movie Pass is a complete media rental service and features streaming movies and TV shows along with movies and… Read More

According to an AP report, Dish Networks, the soon-to-be new owner of Blockbuster, is keeping the leases on 500 of Blockbuster’s physical stores. The reasoning, while on the surface inscrutable, will give Dish a physical presence and allow it access to Blockbuster’s assets and brand to sell its own satellite TV service to consumers. Read More

I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t taken some delight in watching the complete and utter collapse of Blockbuster.
You see, back when I was a child, our community had a couple of thriving local video stores that were the source of pretty much endless enjoyment for me. Then Blockbuster came along. By then, the company was already a mega-chain of blue and gold awnings that… Read More

DISH Network this morning announced that it was selected as the winning bidder in the bankruptcy court auction for substantially all of the assets of Blockbuster, which went belly up in September 2010.
DISH’s winning bid was valued at approximately $320 million, but after adjustments for available cash and inventory and others, the company expects to end up paying approximately $228… Read More

It is nearly the end of the road for Blockbuster as we know it. The company has put itself up for auction and is accepting bids higher than “stalking horse” Cobalt Video Holdco bid of $290 million. The plan, then would be to accept a higher offer from any potential bidders or sell the assets to Cobalt.
What will you get for your $290 million? Read More

It’s come to this: the success of Netflix and Redbox in the United States have driven Blockbuster, as expected, to file for bankruptcy protection after failing to adequately and swiftly adapt its movie-rental model from physical storefronts to mail-order and online technology pioneered by its aforementioned competitors.
The company filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition today in U.S. Read More

Blockbuster is about to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close up to 800 stores. According to the WSJ, the move would wipe out Blockbuster’s debt and leave the company ready to take on the online market. Read More

Like John Henry dying at his hammer, Blockbuster is just about ready to stop being a steel-driving man. According to the LA Times, the company could file for bankruptcy as soon as September in a move, while dire, doesn’t specifically mean the end of the company. Read More

Now why would a cable company that handles pay per view movies and programming team up with a video store? I have no idea. But for whatever reason (perhaps desperation?) Comcast has joined forces with Blockbuster to deliver DVDs by mail. You’d think Comcast would just deliver the content via their high speed internet feeds, or receiver based delivery systems. Perhaps this is just a… Read More

Only weeks after Blockbuster signed a deal with Warner, the company has signed new agreements with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. It appears that the deals with the two studios companies will be similar to the Warner deal, which ensured that studio’s new titles would be available in Blockbuster stores and by mail the day they are released… Read More

When’s the last time you were at a Blockbuster?
For me, it’s been a few years. And it’s been several years since I was going regularly. And I was only doing that because the then-Viacom-backed-giant drove the mom and pop video stores out of business in my community. I have no desire to ever step into a Blockbuster store ever again. But Warner Bros. sure wants me to.
Today… Read More

A new movie came out on DVD this week called The Invention Of Lying. It’s co-written, co-directed, and co-starring Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais and looks mildly entertaining enough that I want to rent it. So I load up Netflix to add it to my queue — but wait, according to Netflix, it’s not available until February 16. Why? Because it’s a Warner movie and as such… Read More

Look at this. It was just yesterday that we learned about the Blockbuster Express DVD kiosks that will be invading NYC shortly and there is already a deal for the rentals. You can get two DVDs for only $1. That’s, well, cheap. Read More

Look out, NYC. Blockbuster is getting ready to roll out 200 Blockbuster Express DVD rental kiosks in New York City. Why you ask? Well, according to the WSJ report, NYC is a Redbox weak spot with only three kiosks in the entire city while there are more than 20,000 nationwide. But just like the original DVD rental kiosk, Redbox, Blockbuster Express offers first run movies (which the movie… Read More

Blockbuster, observing the popularity of services like RedBox (a DVD rental kiosk), has decided they’re going to skip a step and start offering movie rentals that come on an SD card. The new kiosks would load a DRMed movie onto your own SD card, and the content will expire after X viewings or days. They’re hoping that the better quality of the movies (vs. streaming ones or regular… Read More

Back in August, we wrote about the Hollywood movie studios conspiring to keep new release DVDs away from services like Netflix and Redbox for as many as 30 days after their release. The idea behind this from Hollywood’s perspective is simple: If people can’t rent movies right away, they’ll buy more. Sorry, did I say the idea was “simple”? I meant… Read More